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The United States halted all Afghan evacuee flights to the United States from two main bases overseas after discovering a limited measles outbreak among Afghans arriving in the United States, a problem that, according to US officials, will have a serious impact on an often troubled US race. evacuation.
US Customs and Border Protection have made the decision on the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop flights from US bases in Germany and Qatar, according to a US government document seen by The Associated Press on Friday. . The document cited unspecified “food safety concerns”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the temporary shutdown resulted from the discovery of measles among four arrivals in the United States.
The government document viewed by the PA said the shutdown would “have a serious impact” on operations at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and “have a” negative effect “on the nearly 10,000 evacuees, many of whom are there. for more than 10 days and are more and more numerous. tiredness.
It was the latest problem in the hasty, chaotic and often violent evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans and other foreigners from Afghanistan by the Biden administration, which culminated in a military airlift of more than two weeks from Kabul airport. It closed on August 30, when US troops withdrew. Thousands of Afghan evacuees remain in transit sites in third countries, before being transferred to the United States or other countries.
The stoppage of flights is a problem for the United States in part because many evacuees have already stayed at the Ramstein base longer than the 10-day limit set by Germany to allow the United States to use the country as a transit site.
Germany and Qatar, along with Spain, Kosovo, Kuwait and other countries, agreed to temporarily host U.S. treatment sites for evacuees after the fall of Kabul, after the allies d ‘At first hesitated to fear getting stuck with American security concerns.
Much of the processing at many transit sites appears to be taking place in a peaceful and orderly manner. This follows a suicide bombing and other violent attacks and incidents during the US evacuation of Kabul, which killed more than 180 Afghans and 13 US servicemen.
National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said on Friday that 32 Americans and US green card holders left Afghanistan on Friday, 19 on a Qatar Airways flight and 13 others by land. It was only the second evacuation flight authorized by the Taliban since the departure of American troops.
The US government believes around 100 US citizens remain in Afghanistan, State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.
It was the same number the United States had given before the last evacuation flights took the Americans. Porter said she couldn’t immediately explain why the number hadn’t changed.
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